Millions of people suffer with the condition of bowel incontinence. The lack of bowel control causes people embarrassment and unsanitary episodes, quite often leading to social isolation. Treatments for the condition range from conservative treatment to radical treatment such as surgery. However, many patients do not respond to conservative treatment and, for various reasons, are not candidates for surgery.
The prior art discloses devices which are used to help suffer of bowel incontinence with controlling the condition in order to lead a normal lifestyle. One such device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,831,422, (Fisher et al). The device is a probe having a dual lumen and inflatable cuff. The transmission and monitoring of reflected IR light generates an alarm signal when a predetermined amount of reflected IR light is measured. IR light is reflected in response to fecal mass.
Most bowel control probes include electronics for sensing and alerting the user to the presence of fecal mass to avoid incontinent episodes. There is a need in the prior art for an inexpensive, single use catheter which can be used to prevent incontinent episodes.
It is an object of the invention to provide an inexpensive bowel catheter.
It is another object of the invention to provide a single use catheter having a one-way valve controlling inflation of a cuff about the catheter.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a catheter which must be destroyed to allow removal to insure only a single use.
It is another object of the invention to provide a catheter having a hydrophobic filter tip.
These and other objects of the invention will become apparent to ordinary skill in the art after reading the disclosure of the invention.